Michael Jackson to tour, auction personal items

Singer Michael Jackson is arranging an auction at which he plans to sell his personal memorabilia.

Some of the 2000 items include the wrought iron gates from his Neverland Ranch and one of the white gloves he wore in his 1983 Billie Jean video. Auctioneer Darren Julien said Jackson had been sorting through his personal memorabilia and art collection and had "complete control" over the sale. The five-day auction is set to take place in Beverly Hills in April. "We have been working closely with him for five months and he is in complete control of this," Mr Julien said. He added that a similar white glove once owned by Jackson fetched $35,000 (£23,452) at an auction in 2006. A year before that the singer's white socks went for $15,000 (£10,000).

In November, the 50-year-old star lost ownership of the Neverland ranch in California. He filed legal papers which made the Sycamore Valley Ranch Company the new owner. The company is linked to investment firm Colony Capital, which bailed the singer out in March when he owed $24.5m (£16m) on the property. The refinancing deal meant Jackson could keep the sprawling property, but he is still planning to sell off the ranch gates.

"We have not put an estimate on the gates yet. There is a lot of history there," he said. The 2,700-acre ranch once included a zoo, a lake and an amusement park. It was also the place where prosecutors claimed Jackson had molested young boys during sleepovers.

The auction catalogue will sell for $100 (£67), with a limited signed edition available for $500 (£335). A portion of the sale proceeds will go to the charity Musicares. Last month, Jackson was taken to court by an Arab sheik, who claimed the singer owed him millions for reneging on a music contract. They eventually settled out of court. However, Mr Julien insisted the star was not being forced into selling off his items. "This is something that Michael is doing of his own free will. He is not being forced into it," he said. Highlights of the collection will go on a tour expected to include London, Tokyo, New York, Dubai and Santiago.
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Star Wars model sells for $350,000

A miniature model space craft from the original Star Wars film has sold for $350,000 (£177,789) in an auction of iconic film memorabilia. The 18 inch-high T.I.E. fighter featured in the climactic space battle in the 1977 movie.

A hoverboard ridden by Michael J Fox in the Back to the Future films went for $55,000 (£27,938). The sale, by Hollywood auction house Profiles In History, mainly focused on visual effects and props.

Charlton Heston's stone tablets from The Ten Commandments fetched $60,000 (£30,492), while the axe used by Jack Nicholson in The Shining had a closing bid of $25,000 (£12,699). It was used to batter down a hotel door in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation of Stephen King's novel.

The Holy Grail - the Indiana Jones prop, rather than the Christian relic - was bought for $22,500 (£11,429). The auction allowed collectors to buy more than 1,000 original pieces of Hollywood history, including several superhero costumes - among them Wolverine's X-Men jacket and Ben Affleck's Daredevil costume.

Mel Gibson's William Wallace battle costume from 1995's Braveheart was bought for $30,000 (£15,246). Other sales included the animatronic puppet from Alien 3, made from foam rubber, silicone and fibreglass, which sold for £19,000 (£9,651). A ray gun from 1956 science-fiction classic Forbidden Planet went for $40,000 (£20,328).